Cabinets, such as those used in refrigerators, often contain storage compartments enclosed with doors that rotate about pivot points. The materials used for the compartment and the door are generally rigid materials such as rigid thermoplastics. When a rigid door is opened and closed with respect to a rigid compartment, an annoying banging sound results as the door contacts the compartment at both its fully opened and fully closed positions.
In order to deaden these banging sounds which are made when a door is opened and/or closed against its corresponding compartment, supplementary sound deadeners, such as rubber pads, flexible extrusions, gaskets, and/or the like, are placed at the contact points between the door and its corresponding compartment in order to deaden the impact sound which would otherwise be created when the door strikes the compartment.
There are several problems associated with the use of supplementary sound deadeners. For example, the use of these supplementary parts increases material and labor costs in the construction of enclosures in which these parts are used. Because of these cost concerns, supplementary sound deadeners are often applied to cushion the door only when it is closed. Thus, objectionable sounds when the door is opened are tolerated as a trade-off to the additional cost that would be required to deaden the sound arising when the door is both closed and opened. Also, supplementary sound deadeners detract from the aesthetics of the cabinet in which they are used, and they complicate cleaning because they create additional seams that trap dirt and debris. Furthermore, supplementary sound deadeners can be removed, or they may fall off, thus ending their usefulness.
The present invention is directed to a door construction which solves one or more of the above noted problems.